Index of Thoughts

Friday, August 30, 2013

Wine tripping in Paonia, CO

For the last decade I have been either pregnant or nursing which doesn't leave a lot of room for girlfriend trips away. Now that Evelyn has turned two, I finally up to leaving them with Andy for a little quality time with my friends. I decided to go to Paonia, CO to do a little mini wine trip. It was the perfect getaway. It is only about an hour from Montrose, CO and the drive there is gorgeous. Kendra and I went ahead first and waited for my sister-in-law, Heather and her girlfriend Jolynn to meet us up there after they got off of work.

We picked a winery map of the area and just started stopping at all the different ones. It felt like we were in the Alps at some of these vineyards.

Here are the vineyards:

Leroux Creek Winery - The tasting room here is like an underground bunker where it is cool and dark. The owner is from the Alps and was a lot of fun to visit with. They also have a B&B there. I bought the Rose.

Kendra & I at Leroux

Delicious Orchards - This is more of a store with a little cafe. They do have a tasting room and some hard ciders but it is run by whoever is working in the store so they aren't very knowledgable. We grabbed a snack here and moved on.

Azura Cellars - This place was stunning. We really felt like we were in another place. The tasting room & art gallery is contemporary and very pretty. We enjoyed the Pinot Gris so we got a bottle and sat on the porch. We sipped and enjoyed the amazing view. We were here all afternoon. My other girls joined us here.

Kendra at Azura

The view from the porch at Azura

The pinot gris at Azura

We then all headed over to Stone Cottage Cellars which is right down the road. The tasting room is so quaint. It is a little stone cottage with a big red door. The owner was the best! She even gave us a tour of the vineyard. I bought the Gewurztraminer.

The tasting at Stone Cottage.

The beautiful red door at Stone Cottage

Owner of Stone Cottage & her grapes

The amazing view at Stone Cottage and my girls

We then headed back into town at this point because it was 6:00 and closing time for all the tasting rooms. We stayed at the Living Farm B&B which is right downtown in Paonia. Our rooms were nice and quaint. We doubled up with a queen bed and we had a shared bathroom in the hall. It was $90 per room which only made it $45 per person. Plus, it came with an awesome farm to table breakfast of your choice the next morning. We ate dinner at the Living Farm too. The food was pretty good - a little bland but tasty. I got the risotto cake with roasted vegetable and curry sauce. Kendra got the Grass Fed Burger with Goat Cheese (it was ordered med. rare but we got it med. well). Jolynn got the Lamb Enchilada which was pretty good. Heather got the Chicken Pot Pie but I didn't try it. We opened up one of our bottles that we got at a vineyard and had a great evening.

The next morning we had a really good breakfast at the Living Farm. I got 2 eggs over easy with has browns & toast & a pancake. Kendra got the Breakfast Skillet. The other girls slept in so I'm not sure what they ordered. Kendra & I walked down to the little coffee shop because I needed a bigger jolt of caffeine! The downtown is really cute in Paonia but there isn't really any shopping there.

We decided to get all packed up and dressed and press on to more vineyards!

Terror Creek - It's an amazing view from here too.

Terror Creek View

Wine Mash

Heather & Jolynn at Terror Creek

We headed over to Black Bridge Winery. They have a great general store with lots of yummies there. We had a great time tasting their wines. They have a whole bunch. I got the Un-oaked Chardonnay and the Breaker Row Red. I also bought some food goodies.

Black Bridge Grapes

The Black Bridge

We headed back into town and ate lunch in the courtyard at the Flying Fork Cafe and Bakery. What an adorable place! The food was very very good. I got the Turkey BLAT sandwich with a salad. After lunch we decided to make our way back to Montrose. It was such a fun trip! The perfect little getaway. The next time I would also like to stay at Fresh &Wyld Farmhouse B&B which is another farm to table place. It was also fun to bring back all the bottles and share them with Andy. Each one had a little story to go with it.

1 comment:

we really have some very nice wine being crafted in the north fork, and on the whole, i think they are better that the ones in palisade. you did miss one very fine winery, mesa wind, which is only a couple of years old, and is on L road just off 3100 btween leroux creek and the highway. they are just excellent, and make one of the nicest dry roses i can remember. my other personal favorites up there are leroux creek, azura, stone cottage, and black bridge. definitely watch the calendar for taste of the north fork in june and the north fork wine trail in august where all tasting rooms are open and free food pairings are offered as well. some really nice winemakers dinners are also associated with these events. glad you had fun!